Enabling access to microbes

GALT is transforming microbial research and product development with our innovative high-throughput microbiology platform. These tools will revolutionize how microbial studies are conducted, opening previously unreachable territories for scientists to explore.

New microbiology technology is long overdue

Microbes are a unique resource used to improve human health, agriculture, energy production and synthetic biology, but microbiology research tools have barely evolved in the past hundred years. Genomic sequencing is revealing a startling world of useful microbes, yet less than 1 percent of known species have been cultured. The lack of high-throughput cultivation and screening systems has limited scientists’ ability to understand and unlock the power of the microbiome.

Problem/Solution

Studies that once took years can now be completed in months or weeks.

There are millions of bacterial and fungal species, but their potential is limited by our inability to isolate and culture them.

Because it can take years to isolate a single strain – if it can be isolated at all – cultivation barriers can stall microbial research and constrain our ability to solve important problems.

Now, GALT has developed a high-throughput microbiology platform that can isolate multiple species from complex samples, such as soil and stool, allowing researchers to rapidly screen whole populations or engineered libraries.

The GALT Team

GALT Leadership

Peter Christey, Ph.D.

CEO and Co-Founder

Peter Christey has spent the last 20 years commercializing research instruments for a variety of applications. Before co-founding GALT, Christey led the DNA Sequencing Business Unit and DNA forensic product line for Life Technologies. He has also commercialized new products for Guava Technologies, Chiron Corporation and Applied Biosystems. Christey has a B.Sc. in biochemistry from the University of Otago, New Zealand, a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Cambridge, England, and an M.B.A. from INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France.

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Alexander Hallock, Ph.D.

VP, Engineering

Alexander Hallock has extensive experience developing groundbreaking instruments for DARPA and other organizations. He has helped create nanoparticle-based assays, a specialized Raman spectrometer for chemistry applications and several portable environmental sampling devices. Prior to joining GALT, Hallock was a program manager at SRI International. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s in chemistry at Brandeis University and his Ph.D. in physical chemistry at Stanford.

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Bob Barrett

VP, Commercial Operations

Bob Barrett has more than 30 years’ experience in life science research and clinical diagnostics. Since starting his career at Abbott Diagnostics, Barrett has been applying novel technologies to address critical needs. Barrett has held executive positions at Chiron, Roche, Qiagen and Applied Biosystems/LIFE Technologies.

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Scientific Advisory Board

Roman Stocker, Ph.D.

As a professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at ETH Zürich, Roman Stocker studies microscale environmental processes, particularly microbial ones. His expertise in engineering and mathematics has driven his ability to develop microfluidic and other approaches to better understand microbes. He pioneered the use of microfluidics to investigate ocean microbes. Stocker earned his bachelor’s in civil engineering and Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering at the University of Padova, Italy. Prior to joining the faculty at ETH Zürich, Stocker was a professor at MIT for 10 years.

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Karsten Zengler, Ph.D.

An associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Host-Microbe Systems & Therapeutics at UC San Diego, Karsten Zengler investigates microbial ecology to better understand how microorganisms interact with their environment. His expertise in microbial physiology and molecular and computational biology helped spearhead the new field of community systems biology, which studies interspecies interactions. His lab is particularly focused on how host/microbe interactions drive human diseases. Zengler earned his master’s at The University of Göttingen, Germany, and Ph.D. in microbial physiology at Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, also in Germany.

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Paul Blainey, Ph.D.

An assistant professor of Biological Engineering at MIT and a member of the Broad Institute, Paul Blainey studies how microfluidics and other tools can be applied to biology and medicine. He is particularly focused on molecules and cells, teasing out the relationships between DNA and proteins. Blainey studied mathematics and chemistry at the University of Washington and earned his master’s in chemistry and his Ph.D. in physical chemistry at Harvard.